How many of you steal chalk from the pool hall?

Before the Taom days, I never played with anything but fresh chalk, so ye, I would hoard new cubes when I came across them and then leave a slightly worn in one in its place. Mostly played 2 pool halls and they had different wraps on their masters cubes so the chalks ended up where they started after 10ish% use. No biggie. It's pennies per cube so who cares really?
 
I have so much damn chalk that if I never bought another piece I don't think I'd use it all before I croaked -- and I'm only 48. Have two tins of the Tiger chalk (half of which I've left in pool halls by accident, the other half untouched). Jacoby sent me a care package of chalk and a keychain when I bought a shaft once. Have two pieces of Kamui, one I use and another thats still in plastic. That said, I'll probably pick up some Taom to try at Expo.
 
I never really "stole" chalk, but with an average $50 bar tab whenever I walked through the door back then I wouldn't have felt bad even if I did.

When I used Master, I bought it by the dozen. At worst, I'd swap my chalk for a new one from the pool hall when it got a little worn. I would also give mine away if someone needed chalk after I was done playing for the evening.

These days I use Kamui Roku and Taom V10 before that. I give it away once it gets below the paper. That happens like once a year, I think. This is usually to the folks that say they would never spend $25 on a piece of chalk. So far, I've converted 3 people to using better chalk.
 
20250218_103701.jpg I call them.....uh curtosy chalk. Kinda like spreading the love. And a just in case back up with Karma. 😉 Since I am in charge of purchasing. The wife is in charge of distribution. 🤷‍♂️ It's Social Intercourse. Shrug
I carry a couple loose ones..
20250218_104343.jpg

Hmmm almost time to reload the Aught six. 😉
 
Technically i never really took them 'cause i always returned the worn out piece and traded up to a new one. Poolhall 'chalk exchange' program, very progressive cutting-edge. ;)

Somehow this reminds me of a man I knew who stole oxygen and acetylene bottles from where he worked. He said he didn't exactly steal them, every time he brought them in for a refill he would say, "Refill these for RD Cooper", the company owner!

Hu
 
I’ve never taken chalk. I didn’t even know it was a “thing”. We bought a pack of six chalks when we bought our bar table for home use. We are still on chalk cube #2. Friends that come over to play may leave their chalk behind but none have swiped any chalk from us yet.

Heck; they usually leave beer and alcohol behind. If someone asked, they could have a chalk.
 
Back in bygone days I did take a nice piece of Master chalk now and then. I also spent over a hundred a week in pool halls so it didn't keep me up nights! The issue wasn't an unwillingness to buy chalk but not a clue where to buy it. When I found chalk for sale in stores it would be crap, not Master blue which was the only chalk I wanted to use. Master green was dryer and dustier.

With the internet I bought a gross of Master blue. I deliberately leave almost new chalk everywhere I play. Best I recall I paid sixteen or seventeen cents a piece for that chalk. Funny thing, I did an accidental social experiment. I dried a few dozen pieces of chalk in the oven to see if it would play better. I wrapped these pieces of chalk in green electrical tape to tell which were mine and to keep them dry. When they got a little wear I left them on the table as usual. It was amazing how many people would walk the length of the pool room to bring me my chalk they thought I forgot. This was in Buffalo's pool room on Airline, a place in a rough part of town with plenty of questionable clientele.

About the experiment, my dried chalk played better. Then I accidentally left a piece on my back patio for months. Coulda almost wrung this chalk out in South Louisiana near New Orleans. It played better too! Amazingly, Tweetem had selected the worst possible moisture content for their chalk! Well, possibly it was all in my head. Experiments with chalk are over. I collected a cube or three of different premium chalk and toted them in my case for a few years. Gave them to a friend that would use them. I carefully chalk with Master chalk at the beginning of a game and before I am going to use extreme spin. Miscues are almost as rare as hen's teeth. I would have paid for the high dollar chalk in my gambling days if I thought it would help my game, we paid four hundred and twenty dollars a night for a set of goodyear gumballs for the race car. When mine was slow, I could often make it go much faster for a few hundreds of dollars. When it was a top car it might take a half dozen or more changes and a thousand dollars or more to gain a tenth of a second. Twenty or forty dollars for a cube of chalk that would make me hundreds would have seemed reasonable. Seventeen cents for a cube of chalk that is going to make me the same money seems even more reasonable. Master blue rocks and I still have enough left from that gross to last out my life.

PT109, what is the physics behind the gravitational pull of chalk for other pieces of chalk? I used to strategically place two or three pieces of newish Master chalk around the table where it would always be close to hand. Within three to six games it would all be in a pile. Spread the chalk, it would soon congregate again. I consider chalk's attraction to chalk one of the mysteries of the universe!

Hu
I gotta change my habit of leaving chalk sitting on the rail. Diamonds w ball returns are gobbling up my treasured old Masters faster than I can handle it. Once a piece hits those pockets, it's bye bye birdie!! I don't knock em in, but other players do, esp newbies and Friends will walk off w a piece and that's ok, but I've even had players on the table next to mine reach over and grab a cube!! How lazy are you dude?? Just walk around to the other side of the table and use yours. I have tape around mine so people know it's not house fodder. Once this chalk is gone, I can't replace it. So I'm more watchful than I should be. Going to have to be there when those returns are opened so I can retrieve my chalk.
Hu mentioned he tapes his.
Made my day. 😁 Lol.
 
Two of me don’t take pool room chalk. The majority are usually drilled clean through with an auger.

The third me used to show early scrounging for the best pieces and hoarded them. But I would never ever keep them. This personality found a Pyro lying around like it was part of an easter egg hunt for morons. I left it alone for fear it was a trap.

The fourth me just asked the bartender for new chalk and they would simply give it to me. Maybe for having a good rep. See personality 3.

Personality 5 brings my own, but at great risk. I usually spend more time focusing on not losing it to all the theives. Desparate times indeed.
 
Yes I am talking to you and how many times do you do this?

I know many at the pool hall and one guy claims he doesn't steal them but only to return the very used one for a new one and the cycle continues.

How many times do you steal the chalk?
I have a great table in my basement and like the premium chalk. I don't even use the chalk the Pool Hall provides. I take my own to the Pool Hall.
 
If ya look on internet you can get 144 cubes of masters blue delivered to your house, local pool hall, whatever for 50 bucks…
 
I gotta change my habit of leaving chalk sitting on the rail. Diamonds w ball returns are gobbling up my treasured old Masters faster than I can handle it. Once a piece hits those pockets, it's bye bye birdie!!
That's not entirely true. Bring a flashlight next time. At least on the models at my usuall hall, there is a slot on the front of the table and one behind the rack. Look through and you can see where the chalk is. I usually get it out with a house cue.
 
Never, and I've left the one I brought with me more than a few times.

Steal all you want but don't be surprised if people think less of you.
 
Never, and I've left the one I brought with me more than a few times.

Steal all you want but don't be surprised if people think less of you.

Chalk isn't nothing. I once saw somebody steal two ketchup packets off the table in a cafe and they weren't even putting ketchup in their coffee!

Hu
 
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